This story from a few weeks ago indicates that Ashley Lelie has voided his contract and is now a free agent. I took a look at his numbers and was surprised to (re-)discover that Lelie had 1084 yards and seven touchdowns just two short years ago.

Immediately the title of this post popped into my head. I knew the answer probably wasn't Lelie, but I figured it would be a fun query to run, so I ran it. After Lelie, the next name that came to mind was Charles Johnson.

I took all receivers who had a 1000-yard season and played for at least four seasons. Then I found the ones who had the lowest average of their second-, third-, and fourth-best seasons. Lelie's best four seasons, for instance have been 1084, 770, 628, and 525. So his three-next-best average is 641. I found 20 receivers with lower three-next-best averages that that. Some of these guys probably shouldn't be on any kind of "worst wide receivers" list, but they ended up here anyway for one reason or another.

So don't think this is the definitive list. But here it is anyway, for you to use as a guide in your search for the animal described in the post's title. Personally, I think Nate Burleson is making a strong bid for the crown. Albert Connell might have a case too.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 13th, 2007 at 5:45 am and is filed under General.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.

The problem with guys like Westbrook, Crowell, Jeffers and Robinson is that they were talented players that suffered injuries. Connell was absolutely horrible in New Orleans, but was a legitimate breakout player candidate in Washington. A third year receiver who had 1100 yards and averages over 18 yards per catch will get people talking, for sure.

I think all the old guys should be discounted because of how much better you had to be to reach the 1,000 yard mark back then. Burleson is an obvious candidate, but he's always confused me. He caught 138 passes his senior year and had 19 in a single game. He ranked as the 16th best fantasy WR in 2004 despite ranking 29th among WRs in targets. He had 134 yards and two TDs in week 15 of 2004 while playing with a broken nose, fractured finger and separated shoulder, so we know he's tough. But obviously his career has gone way downhill ever since.

Stokley's another good candidate for worst ever. It might be a three-way race between him, Connell and Burleson. (I suppose if you think Stokley's a bit more talented, you can put him in the injury prone group with Westbrook/Crowell/MROB/Jeffers).

BTW -- best receiver to ever have only one 1,000 yard season? Bill Groman. He had 2,648 yards and 29 TDs in 28 games from 1960-1961. That's equivalent to two straight 1513/16 TD seasons today, which would obviously make him one of the very best players in the league. Incredible that he did that in 1960.

Rod Gardner can barely even make an NFL roster these days- the Packers got rid of him and went with guys like Ruvell Martin this year, for example, so he's got to be mentioned as one of the worst. What's the deal with all the Redskins WR anyway?

This would be interesting to see with RB, but the problem there too would be that most would probably be guys who got injured or backups on run-heavy teams whose starter got hurt for a year. The name Erric Pegram really shot to mind for me.

It really surprises me to see Bruce Hill on that list. What happened to him, did he get hurt? He had a good 2nd season, and his 3rd and 4th were disappointing but still decent, then his 5th he missed a bunch of games then out of the league.

Ok, I'd like to nominate Tim Smith for a really odd NFL career. 2 catches each of his first two years, 0 catches in his third year, then 83 for 1176 his fourth year and 69 for 1141 the fifth year, before 46-660 and 4-72 his last two years. Does anybody know anything about this guy?

Studstill was actually very good. He led the league in receiving in 1966, even though his quarterbacks were Karl Sweetan and Milt Plum, who combined to complete 52.5% of their passes, with a staggering ratio of 8 touchdowns to 28 interceptions. That year he caught more balls and gained more yards year than either Bob Hayes (4 Pro Bowls) or Charley Taylor (8 Pro Bowls) -- and 1966 was the career year for both of those guys. Studstill gained 1,266 yards in 1966, and the next NFL receiver to gain that many yards in a season would be John Jefferson, with Dan Fouts and Air Coryell in 1980.

He was also the punter (he went to the Pro Bowl once as a punter, I recall), and after 1966 that's mainly what he did. Since he only played 7 games the next year I suspect there may have been an injury that slowed him down, but I don't recall. I remember him as the punter for those good George Allen/Tommy Prothro Rams teams.

Better late than never, eh? ...
Regarding what Chase Stuart said in post #5. That's true, statistics don't show what was really going on i.e. injuries and such that were the main cause for some players statistical downfall and early retirement. Don't forget about petty personal or political reasons some players don't get used to full potential. Every time I do a little research on my uncle (Groman) it amazes me on the amount of accomplishments that he accumulated in such a short time. I also agree that the older guys should not be compared to todays players since there are so many factors that just does not put them on the same playing field. The main one being money... back then there were more players playing for the love of the game rather than the love of the green. [cough, 'team t.o.' cough ]

Willie Jackson was a wide receiver for the Saints who had a single 1,000 yard season near the end of his career... I thought he was pretty under-rated, though. I wouldn't describe him as "the worst," just a statistical anomaly.

He really was amazing for 2 years in Washington as the Redskins won the Super Bowl in '82 then lost it in '83. (check out his post season numbers in '83: pretty darn good!)

He got hurt during the '84 season, came back in time to play in the playoffs, then ended up in Atlanta the following season. I'm not sure if the 'Skins traded him or just cut him. Was it because of the injury? He had one decent year for the Falcons, then fell off the map before he got past 30 years old.

Meanwhile, the 'Skins got ahold of Clark and Sanders from the USFL and "The Posse" replaced "The Smurfs".